In Memory of Private Arthur C Rutter - WW1

Extracts from 'UNCLE ARTHUR and THE SOMME' from Joseph Mason

"In 1917  he (Arthur) was a private in the Essex Regiment and he had just been made a Lewis gunner. He had originally joined  the Cambridgeshire Regiment and appears to have got to France some time in 1916."

"The Germans had decided to abandon the Somme front in February 1917 and to begin Operation Alberich, the scorched earth withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. The British forces who had been fighting the Battle of the Somme from the summer to the autumn 1916, were left to follow them under heavy shellfire."

" It was cold February weather and with the U–boat threat it was getting increasingly difficult to import certain foods such as tea and sugar. Lord Devonport, the government Food Controller, wanted to avoid rationing but was urging the nation to economise by eating such foods as streaky rather than lean bacon. Rationing was finally introduced for certain foods towards the end of 1917."

Arthur writes home dd 15th Feb 1917:

". . . Very cold and frosty, with snow everywhere, & the ground hard as a rock. I expect you are having much the same kind of weather . . ."

His next letter dd 19th Feb17:

" . . . I have been asked to put in for a commission, so have done so. I have been and seen my Captain and he has submitted my name etc. Today I had to go to the Orderly Room and fill up a form applying for one. I will have to see the Colonel and Brigadier General, and if I am lucky I may be in "Blighty" shortly on a month's furlong . . ."

"During the following week he was sent to the front and had a terrible time. So far Arthur had avoided injury, although his chums were going down with trench foot and worse."

He writes home on 24th February:

" . . . We had it rather rough this time as our relief was four days late, and the thaw and heavy rain made the trenches knee deep in mud & water. Nearly half our chaps are gone in hospital with “trench feet”. Could do with your parcel now. Haven’t had a mail up for four days now, worse luck. We lost some nice chaps this time am sorry to say. When we were going in we had to advance for over two miles over open ground, no cover whatever and no communication trench. The corporal of our platoon was in front of me, he got shot through the head, stone dead. I just stopped and had a look at him,& had to go on. Poor chaps, they laid there for four days, & some of them wounded. It seems a shame but some of the dead are never buried. They lay about all over the place. . . ."

The next letter Arthur's widowed mother receives reads:

"I have just received your wire regarding your son A Rutter 41442. I am sorry to have to inform you that he was killed in action on the afternoon of March 14^th by a shell. The same shell killed four men, and though aid came at once they were all dead when the stretcher bearers came up. He was buried that night, and you will be notified as to the location of his grave later on. I was very sorry to lose your son as he was a cheery man and well liked by his commander. As we are away from the telegraph this will reach you as soon as a wire.

Sincerely Yours. C.W. Ritson,"

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 Private Arthur Clarence RUTTER is remembered on the memorial at Thiepval. His grave is unknown. On 5th October 2014 students from Stradbroke High School visited Thiepval and  placed a British Legion cross at the memorial in his memory.

Our thanks to Joseph Mason for making the above information available to this archive.

http://joemasonspage.wordpress.com/